1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system in which components are interconnected via a network, and more particularly, to a printing system in which a job created using a computer or other apparatus may be printed out from multiple printers, as well as to a printer used for such a system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an increasing number of network printing systems, in which multiple host machines such as personal computers or work stations and multiple printers and copying machines are connected via a LAN, are being used in offices and schools where documents and images are processed using computers. Using such a network printing system, printing may be performed by selecting a printer that is capable of fast printing, or multiple documents may be simultaneously printed using multiple printers. Even when multiple people wish to perform printing at the same time, printing may be performed using an available printer without waiting for the previous user to finish printing. Therefore, printing may be made efficient and the printers may be used effectively.
In addition, in a network printing system, a host machine that creates the print job and a printer that outputs the print job are generally located with some distance therebetween. Therefore, ordinarily, when the print job created using the host machine is automatically printed out by the printer, any person can see the contents of the output print job. Technologies regarding a so-called confidential print mode have been proposed in which, where the user wants to avoid the situation described above, printing is initiated only when the user physically comes to the printer and inputs his ID code (authentication information).
However, in the confidential print mode in the conventional network printing system described above, when a single job is printed out from multiple printers, the user inputs his ID code in each printer to initiate printing. Consequently, the system requires labor and time on the part of the user.